Emanuel Pleitez
FROM:
Eastside of Los Angeles, CA
HEROES:
Cesar Chavez, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Pedro Jose Greer
PROUDEST ACCOMPLISHMENT:
Creating a national network of young Latino professionals to raise over $150,000 as a collective group for the Obama campaign.
SOMETHING YOU MIGHT TEACH AT THE SUMMIT:
How to run for elected office, building a local grassroots campaign with national appeal, Contemporary Latino politics, U.S. Treasury Dept's current impact on financial services industry, Emerging Domestic Markets
SOMETHING YOU HOPE TO LEARN AT THE SUMMIT:
The path of emerging leaders and the innovative social projects they are involved in that will shape the future of our society.
SOMETHING YOU ARE STRUGGLING WITH IN YOUR WORK:
Democratizing financial markets
SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY:
Dancing, speaking to kids, finishing a long run, helping others become leaders, creating opportunities for those less fortunate
SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU ANGRY:
Poverty around the world
TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAMILY:
My mother was born and raised along with eight brothers and sisters in Mexicali, Mexico and came over the border while pregnant with me in her early 30s. With only an elementary school education, she raised my two-years younger sister and me single-handedly in Los Angeles. My mother is currently a cafeteria worker at my high school. My sister is a graduate of Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, CA and currently working in the film/TV industry. My father was born the oldest of 14 brothers and sisters in El Salvador. He fled the country during their Civil War in the late 70s. He met my mom in Mexicali and came to Los Angeles when I was born. He left us for Montreal, Canada after my sister was born. I recently reconnected with my father. He worked for a picture framing company in Montreal and is currently unemployed. I have about 90 first cousins.
AN IDEA TO MAKE THE 30SUMMIT EVEN BETTER:
Make sure we have time to get to know each other on a very personal level during the summit to help maintain our relationships after the summit.
BIOGRAPHY:
Emanuel Pleitez is a 26-year-old of Mexican and Salvadoran descent from the Eastside of Los Angeles. As a recent candidate in California's 32nd Congressional District Special Election, he ran grassroots campaign garnering national media attention, recruiting over 60 full-time volunteers to fly into East Los Angeles from across the country, and raising over $300,000, 75% online. In many ways, Pleitez represents a vivid template of the kind of leadership this new generation is poised to bring from America's neighborhoods to Washington. His single mom, a cafeteria worker, immigrated from Mexico and struggled to raise her family on the Eastside of L.A. Before Pleitez reached the age of ten, his family had moved ten times, often finding shelter in back rooms or garages. He attended local public schools, graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in El Sereno, then went on to graduate from Stanford University. Pleitez was a field organizer for the John Kerry Presidential campaign, served as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Special Assistant, and briefly worked on the Senate Democratic Steering and Coordination Committee. Then he moved to the private sector, working as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. His experiences in the public and private sector helped qualify him to serve on the Treasury Department Transition Team for the new Obama Administration.
